December 21, 2001—The Department of Energys Bonneville Power Administration (BPA) announced that it will double the amount of electricity it purchases from wind generation projects. BPA supplies roughly half of the electricity used in the Pacific Northwest.
BPA agreed to purchase about 34 percent of the output from the Stateline Wind Project located on the Oregon-Washington border southwest of Walla Walla, Wash. About 90 megawatts of power will be delivered to BPA through PacifiCorp Power Marketing Inc., a subsidiary of ScottishPower, beginning Dec. 29, 2001.BPA’s purchase can provide energy for about 18,000 homes.
The Stateline project is built, owned and operated by FPL Energy, LLC. When the first phase is completed, 399 wind turbines will be arranged in several strings on privately owned hilltops and ridges located west of Walla Walla, Wash., and north of Pendleton, Ore. near the Columbia River bend. Each machine can generate 660 kilowatts. The entire project can produce 265 megawatts, all of which is marketed by PacifiCorp Power Marketing.
BPA currently purchases 34 megawatts of wind power from Foote Creek located in Wyoming, and recently announced a 50-megawatt purchase from another wind power development in Condon, Ore. This June, Secretary Abraham announced that BPA was negotiating for up to 830 additional megawatts of wind power potentially making Bonneville one of the largest suppliers of wind power in the country.
BPA is a federal agency, under the U.S. Department of Energy, that markets wholesale hydroelectric power primarily from the federal hydroelectric projects in the Columbia River Basin. BPA owns and operates about three-quarters of the Pacific Northwest’s total transmission capacity. BPAcustomers include publicly owned and investor-owned utilities, as well as some large industries.
